Page 37 of Forever His Brat

Sam paused, a forkful of hay in mid-air as he stared at Nick. “What the hell? Sounds shady as fuck.”

“Yeah, shouldn’t have been a shocker honestly. I told you I wanted out of that job. Anyway, I could have fought them on it, but it would have left us broke so we came to a deal. They promised to pay up if I stayed on for another six weeks and trained a few guys to take over for me.”

“Damn. How could you be sure they’d pay up in the end?” They didn’t sound like people Sam would trust. He probably would have given up the pay for lost and hightailed it out of there if it was him.

“Made them put it in writing, notarized and all. Demanded a nice bonus for the inconvenience and threw in a penalty for every day they were late paying me too—my mama didn’t raise a fool. They didn’t like the idea much, but my leaving would have screwed them, so they agreed. Eventually.” Nick’s smug tone made it clear he felt he’d gotten the better end of the deal.

Sam was surprised he’d talked them into all that and said so.

Nick smirked. “Well, the thing is… I’d practically been running that place for going on six months. Their micromanaging foreman was damn near useless for anything except chasing off the experienced hands. We worked out a way to keep him busy nagging at one hand while the rest of us got the actual work done and things went pretty well without anyone being the wiser, until—”

He just stood there grinning, drawing things out in a pregnant pause. It was an invitation for Sam to speak up and ask.

Sam snorted and gestured at him to continue.

“—until I walked out of there. Three days at home with Katie packing and they started to realize things were going downhill fast. So, the owners came around to see what the problem was and found everything a mess. Guess a few of the hands spoke up and explained so they came hunting me up to ‘talk’ about my future.”

Sam couldn’t help laughing. It definitely sounded like the Nick he knew. He shook his head. “Can’t blame you for sticking around for that. You had them over a barrel, and they knew it.”

“Yep. Made for a nice chunk of change to throw into savings too. We’ve been thinking we might want a kid someday so the money could be handy. Gonna be honest with you, one of the reasons I took this job is the stability might give us a shot at that.”

Nick as a father was something Sam would love to see. He had no doubt the man would be great with kids. It hit him that he and Nick hadn’t seen each other for years, yet they’d somehow ended up basically in the same place at the same time when it came to life.

He liked the synchronicity of it. It felt significant somehow. And if he hadn’t gotten lucky with Jimmy taking him under his wing when his father died, Sam knew he’d probably have been stuck in the same loop of crap jobs that Nick had been.

Moving from ranch to ranch, struggling to find steady work in a changing world, that couldn’t have been easy and he knew it. He’d been incredibly fortunate, and he was happy to pass that good fortune on to Nick now.

“If this all works out like I’m hoping it will, we might end up raising kids together. Can’t say I’d mind that,” was all Sam said. After that the talking died down as they got serious about clearing up the work for the day.

Sam had a lot to think about. Working with Nick was just like old times, and he was more convinced than ever that the man would fit in just fine on the ranch.

He didn’t plan to rush anything, but he figured in a day or two he could start delegating. He knew well enough that he had a tendency to over-manage things, sometimes taking over a job when someone wasn’t doing it right.

Nick wasn’t going to react to that well so Sam would have to watch himself. It was one area where he’d have to learn to loosen the reins. Which was fine, he intended to tighten the ones around Charlie so there would be balance. The thought had him snickering to himself as he worked.

For a change there were no problems. Everything went well and the men were starting to get used to seeing Nick around. It was probably one of the best days he’d had in a while, so Charlie’s lunch date with Katie slipped to the back of his mind.

It wasn’t until he headed home at sunset and saw her car was gone that he remembered. He frowned and checked his phone—no new calls. It had been roughly five hours since she’d gone. Of course, she hadn’t said when they would be back. Maybe they’d done some shopping too.

Sam knew there was probably no reason to worry. The main roads were most likely perfectly clear, but still, he’d expected her home by then.

Should I call?He didn’t want to come off over-possessive just as Charlie was finally making a friend, but he couldn’t help worrying. He pulled up her number as he stepped into the house, but before he could actually dial, he heard a car coming up the road.

Sam stepped back onto the porch just in time to see her drive by. He figured she was dropping Katie off and then she’d circle back around. While he waited, he headed inside to catch a hot shower and change out of his work clothes.

He was settled into some loose lounging pants and a t-shirt before she returned. He assumed they were standing around chatting, as if they hadn’t been out all day together. He grinned and shook his head. It had to be going well if Charlie was spending so much time with Nick’s girl.

Debating on whether he should fix dinner for her, he hesitated in front of the fridge. He wasn’t sure how late they’d eaten so, in the end, he just threw some leftovers into the microwave for himself. He’d just settled down to eat when she finally came in with several bags.

“Eating without me!” she cried dramatically, dropping her bundles to put her hands on her hips.

He looked up and both eyebrows climbed. “I wasn’t sure if you’d be hungry. Seemed like your lunch ran kinda late.” There was a little bit of recrimination in his tone, but he kept it mild.

She dropped the acting and smiled. “I’m just kidding, Daddy. It did run late and I’m still full.”

“Come tell me about your day?” he said, moving his chair back to make space for her in his lap.

She settled herself there, wiggling a little to get comfortable as he loosely wrapped one arm around her waist. It left his other hand free to manage a fork. He took the occasional bite as she told him about her adventures in town.

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